


Unconventional Encounters

by getadoge



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Online Dating, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-21 21:38:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7405816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/getadoge/pseuds/getadoge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan is single, 20 years old, a college dropout, running an online dating business, and failing at dealing with his personal issues. Phil is a 24 year old university graduate living in London and struggling to get back out there after his breakup with his boyfriend of 6 years.</p><p>Somehow a bet leads the two of them to meeting and becoming sexually and romantically frustrated business partners.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! New chaptered fic. I don't have a schedule yet but we'll see what happens if you guys enjoy it. The first two chapters are something like prologues but not really. You'll see. Sorry I rushed the end a bit, I didn’t want to make this too long. Next chapter comes up next Monday.

" _ Hello, London _ . I'm the founder of London Love, Dan Howell. London Love is London's only solely local dating service with all inclusive LGBT+ accommodations." the brunette said, beginning to speak to the camera with both vivid and somewhat unnecessary hand gestures.

 

"We strive to bring people together with as much convenience to the member as possible! Our dating services give people many options when making their account, such as making a video profile, custom color schemes, choosing from a wide range of sexualities and genders to describe oneself, and a staff committed to making your personal journey as safe as possible." He said with a comforting smile.

 

"Please join us at—" Dan paused and smiled to leave silence for when the address would be flashed up on the screen. "I hope you join us."

 

The camera cut off and Dan moaned in defeat, sitting back on the couch.

 

"I think we have a winning take." A curly haired brunette replied from behind the now inactive camera.

 

"It better fucking be, Amy." Dan groaned, half mumbling his words.

 

"Stop mumbling and help me look over the footage. Alex should be over soon to edit the video and hopefully make it into a good ad." Amy replied, removing the camera's memory card.

 

"I've taken this serious for well over an hour. I'm ready to leave this to Alex and get wasted." He groaned in reply.

 

"Can you get anymore classy?" Her hair bounced as she turned and slipped the memory card into her Mac.

 

"Well, I do own an online dating service so probably not." He laughed.

 

"I'm so blessed to have you as a roommate. You can't even be bothered to say my whole name. It's Amelia, you twat." She said with heat.

 

"Calm down. Amy just suits your pretty face better." Dan responded, barely joking.

 

"Ha, funny. Get the door, I think he's here." Amelia said.

 

Dan huffed and jumped up to get the door when the knocking became audible. His hand wrapped around the metallic surface of the door knob, twisting the handle and yanking the battered door open. The familiar face of Alex came into view and Dan was soon engulfed in a hug.

 

"Hey! Dan! How are you?" The energetic late teen said. Alex was a friend and employee of Dan's and was in charge of the video portion of the website as well as work on small other things. Alex was one of the reasons the site ran as smoothly as it did, and despite Alex being barely 19, he was probably more resourceful than some of those in their 30s working under Dan.

 

"Hey, Alex." Dan said, returning the hug as warmly as he could.

 

"Where's Amy?" Alex peeked behind his boss.

 

"She's in the lounge. She has the video footage uploaded to the laptop already." Dan pulled away.

 

"Cool, thanks." Alex's eyes glanced around nervously with his hands now placed in his pockets as he walked until the next room.

 

Dan shook his head in that all knowing way of his after Alex had left the small hall. The young man was amused by the oh-so-obvious crush that Alex had on Amelia. The amusing part about this was that Amy was intensly oblivious to the fact Alex had his eyes on her from the get-go.

 

Dan followed behind Alex, quickly plopping down on the couch as Alex and Amy sat and stood bent over the computer. The green eyed boy popped in occasional questions for Dan as the editing process went along. He really was fortunate that Amy was a professional photographer because he has to admit that this ad would be absolute shit without her contribution.

 

About an hour and a phone call to Dominos later, the three were sat in the small living room eating pizza on paper towels. Alex was clearly telling a bullshit story to impress Amy, she listened without too much obnoxious feedback, and Dan was, well, being Dan. He had zoned out from the story, looking off and thinking about life's amusements. He thought about how humorous his life was. Here Dan was, a 20 year old dropout who was now running a fairly successful dating site and if you were to ask him about his love life then his reply would most likely be "It's nonexistent."

 

He found it humorous, but humorous in a saddening way. Funny to think about, but fairly sad to actually be living the lonely life of Dan Howell. His last relationship had been about three years previous with his ex girlfriend. She left him for some other guy and since then he hadn't even had a one night stand. Well, about a year ago he had a failed date with some girl he met off his own website but he couldn't feel a thing for her. They had sex but that was the end of that. That's when he figured that dating wasn't his thing (funny coming from the "modern love expert").

 

“I’ve got to take this stuff back to work ASAP. Can you guys help me out?” Amy spoke up with a mouth full of pizza. 

 

“Can’t. I’ve got to get into work early tomorrow.” Dan sighed, “I really should be heading to bed. ‘Night, guys.”

 

Dan rose to his feet and exited the room, his friends bidding him farewell as he left. His hand shut his bedroom door behind him before quickly retreating to his forehead to push back his hair. It was already nearing midnight and he would probably be back up at 4 am. He needed to find some way to truly separate them from other dating sites but it wasn’t an easy thing for the 20 year old, sleep deprived, stressed man to do unaccompanied. This all was a problem for the morning though so Dan stripped himself of his jeans and shorts and climbed into bed for him to only mindlessly browse is phone for a good hour.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil find's himself some messages on that dating site oh no

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this isn't great but this chapter was needed. new chapter. if anyone else wants to write some of this story it's totally cool. I already have a few more chapters written but i'm totally willing to hand over the baton for this guy since i might not be active next month

_ “Are you staying the night?” _

 

“Nah, man. I’m heading over to Jared’s place in like an hour. He’s just bought the Walking Dead box set.” Dylan said as he slid his phone back into his khaki pockets.

 

“You will definitely have more fun there rather than here trying to catch pieces of candy in our mouths.” Phil popped another M&M into his mouth.

 

“This is a blast, friend... but TV and the possibility of sex is very appealing.” Dylan laughed.

 

There was a pause of silence before Dylan said, “I’m really happy with Jared, y’know. I get that you and Vick only broke up a few months ago but I miss seeing you happy with someone.”

 

“I don’t need someone to be happy.” Phil clarified quickly, tossing another bit of candy Dylan’s way.

 

Dylan darted his head to the side, barely catching the small chocolate in his mouth.

 

“I know you don’t but I think you need to at least try to start trying to get back out there. Have you ever even been in a relationship with someone other than Vick?” Dylan worked towards persuading his best friend. “Just sign up for the dating site I met Jared on! If you have a bad time then I’ll stop digging into your relationship status… and I’ll pay for your Netflix for the next year. Deal?”

 

Phil paused to think. He saw the ways this could easily go horribly wrong. He really shouldn’t put so much faith in the internet… should he? Worst of all, there was a chance this would end in Dylan’s favor. On the other hand, if he won it would be a peaceful year of free Netflix and zero blind dates set up by his pain of a best friend. Phil decided to take the risk.

 

“Deal.” Phil agreed.

 

“Seal it.” Dylan said, raising his hand for a high five.

 

Phil bobbed his head and completed the gesture. “You know, I hate when you do things like this.”

“I know you do but I believe I’m in the right… for once.” Dylan laughed.

 

Phil only rolled his eyes in response

 

\--

 

Dylan went home shortly after the bet but in no way failed to remind Phil of the deal. The young man sat on his couch, lounged against an arm rest when he felt his phone buzz.

 

_ [Dylan Canter 1m ago] _

 

_ Don’t forget our deal dude. Make your profile right now _

 

_ [Dylan Canter now] _

 

_ No getting out of this one :^) _

 

He rolled his eyes and opened his laptop. As it powered on Phil tapped out a short reply.

 

_ Jesus Im on it _

 

He knew Dylan wouldn’t lay off until Phil tried his luck with this new dating website so he was easy to give in. He typed in the url and signed up in a flash. He filled in the general settings of his profile easily.

 

 _Gender: [Male]_ _  
__Agender_

_ Androgyne _

_ Androgynous _

_ Bigender _

_ Cis _

_ Cisgender _

_ Cis Female _

_ Cis Male _

_ Cis Man _

_ Cis Woman _

_ Cisgender Female _

_ Cisgender Male _

_ Cisgender Man _

_ Cisgender Woman _

_ Female to Male _

_ FTM _

_ Gender Fluid _

_ Gender Nonconforming _

_ Gender Questioning _

_ Gender Variant _

_ Genderqueer _

_ Intersex _

_ Male to Female _

_ MTF _

_ Neither _

_ Neutrois _

_ Non-binary _

_ Other _

_ Pangender _

_ Trans _

_ Trans* _

_ Trans Female _

_ Trans* Female _

_ Trans Male _

_ Trans* Male _

_ Trans Man _

_ Trans* Man _

_ Trans Person _

_ Trans* Person _

_ Trans Woman _

_ Trans* Woman _

_ Transfeminine _

_ Transgender _

_ Transgender Female _

_ Transgender Male _

_ Transgender Man _

_ Transgender Person _

_ Transgender Woman _

_ Transmasculine _

_ Transsexual _

_ Transsexual Female _

_ Transsexual Male _

_ Transsexual Man _

_ Transsexual Person _

_ Transsexual Woman _

_ Two-Spirit _

  
  


_ Sexuality: [- - -] _

_ Androgynosexual _

_ Androsexual _

_ Asexual _

_ Bisexual _

_ Demisexual _

_ Gray Asexual _

_ Gynosexual _

_ Heterosexual _

_ Homosexual _

_ Pansexual _

_ Polysexual _

_ Skoliosexual _

 

_ Looking for: [Male] _

 

The options continued on but Phil did not dare scroll through the monstrous list. Despite his unfair distaste for dating websites. He found them so forced and fake but if Dylan would leave him alone then he was all in. So he selected that he was looking for a male partner, added in his name, age, and a picture of himself and clicked ‘finish’. Rather unfortunately, he quickly had a new message. He opened the message, thinking it was odd that he got a message so fast and was instantly bombarded with a handful of pictures of the mystery man’s penis. Phil’s face turned to quickly express his disgust

 

“Ugh, that’s why I avoided online dating at all costs.” Phil muttered under his breath as he reported the user.

 

Normally, Phil would not bother himself with blocking or reporting but that was so crude and he didn’t want others getting unwelcomed nudes in their inbox. In this time wasted, he had received a few more messages, mostly of similar nature but a few simple “Hello”s. Already deeply disappointed in this “dating” website Dylan pressured him into using, he shut his laptop. 

 

_ [Phil Lester now] _

 

_ Your “dating” site sucks. 4/6 of the messages I got were nudes. _

 

_ [Dylan Canter now] _

 

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Phil rolled his eyes and tossed his phone onto his bed. He hoped his friend would just admit defeat and let Phil ditch the site.

 

But that was just wishful thinking.

 

Dylan had been the one to introduce him to Vick. He hadn’t intended for Vick and Phil to get involved when he brought them together at a party a few years previous. They were still teenagers, misbehaving a bit when they stayed out too late at Dylan’s adult free house. More than a few of the people there were under drinking age but that was expected when he (much to Phil’s displeasure) invited half the school and neighboring school. 

 

They were only 17 then but they were quickly in a committed and very adult relationship. When things started going south they were convinced it was just a rough patch and they put so much into their young love relationship even as they grew into their twenties. Phil was almost 24 and the so-called rough patch wasn’t over. In fact, he had just caught Vick with a co-worker. Phil came home for his lunch break and he saw her and him. At this point, Phil had had enough and he threw both of them out. Apparently the affair had been going on for half a year under Phil’s nose.

 

Dylan was quick to want to get Phil a new boyfriend and Phil was not. He didn’t want anyone. He didn’t need anyone. He needed time to figure out who he was without the cloud of an old lingering love blocking his view. He wasn’t eager to lose that view.


End file.
